Підготувала Ситник Вероніка
The Celts in the British Isles
- During the period from the 6 to 3 the century B.C. a people called the Celts spread across Europe from the east to the west.
- More than one Celts tribe invaded Britain. From time these tribes were attacked and overcome by other Celtic tribes from the Continent. Celtic tribes called the Picts penetrated the mountains on the north, some Picts as tribes of Scots crossed over to Ireland and settled there. Later the Scots returned to the larger island and settled in the North beside the Picts. They came in such large numbers that in time the name of Scotland was given to that country. Powerful Celtic tribes, the Britons held most of the country and the southern half of the island was named Britain.
- The Iberians were unable to fight back the attacks of the Celts who were armed with metal spears, swords, daggers and axes.
- Most of the Iberians were slain in the conflict: some of them were driven westwards into the mountains. And now this place is called Wales.
- The Greeks were the first to mention about the British Isles. It is from the Greek books that we know about the Phoenicians- who were great sailors and traders .The ancient Greek historian Herodotus who is called the father of history wrote that in the 5 century B.C. the Phoenicians used to come to the British Isles for tin which was used in making bronze, they called the British Isles the Tin Islands.
- .The famous Roman general, statesman and writer Julius Caesar in his Commentaries on the Gallic War, a book written in Latin J.S .described the island and the Celts against whom he fought. He told Celts were tall and blue-eyed. They wore long flowing moustaches but no beards.
- To this day the descendants of the ancient Celts live on the territory of the British Isles. The Welsh who live in Wales are of Celtic origin. People in most parts of Wales speak Welsh, Celtic language. In Highlands of Scotland as well as in the western parts of Ireland the people speak a tongue of Celtic origin too.
- Some words of the Celtic language can still be found in Modern English and most of them are geographical names. Many rivers, hills and towns are still called by their old Celtic names.
- Eg:*in England there are several rivers called Avon which in Celtic means a river.
- *the chalk highlands in the southern and south-eastern parts of England are called "the Downs” this name comes from the word down which means "bare, open highland".
- In the 1 century B.C. when the in habitants of the British Isles were still living under the primitive communal system, the Roman Empire became the strongest slave-owning state in the Mediterranean.
- It was the last and greatest of civilization of the ancient world. The Romans ruled all of the civilized world and 1 century A.D. they conquered Britain. Britain was a province of the Roman Empire for about four centuries.
- While the Celts were still living in tribes the Romans were the most powerful people in the world. Roman society differed greatly from that of the Celts. It was a slave society divided into antagonistic classes. The main classes were the slaves and the slave owners..
- The Roman conquered all the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. In the wars in which Rome gained one province after another for the empire, many thousands of prisoners were taken. They were sold at the slave-market at Rome. Slaves were so cheap that all the Romans except the poorest had one or more,& rich slave-owners possessed hundreds of them. In the 1 B.C. & in the 1 A.D. slavery spread widely in the Roman Empire.
The slave-owners made up the minority of the population but they owned the land, tools, buildings and slaves. The slaves possessed neither land nor tools & were themselves the property of the slave-owners. The Roman Conquest of Britain
- One of the last countries to be conquered by Rome was France, or Gaul as it was then called. The war against the Gauls, who were Celtic tribes, lasted for eight year. Julius Caesar was appointed Head of the Roman army which was sent to conquer Gaul. In the course of his campaigns Caesar reached the Channel & that was how the Romans came to see the white cliffs of the land of the British Celts.
- In 55 B.C. a Roman army of 10.000 men crossed the Channel and invaded Britain. The Celts saw their ships approaching & rushed to attack the invaders in the sea as they were landing. The Celts made a great impression on the Romans, who saw them for the first time in battle.
- In the next year, 54 B.C. Caesar again came to Britain, this time with larger forces (25000 men).
- The Romans who had better arms & were much better trained defeated the Celts in several battles. At last Roman army invaded Britain and conquered the South-East. Other parts of the country were taken from time to time during the next forty years.
- As a result of the conquest signs of Roman civilization spread over Britain. There had been no towns in Britain before the Romans conquered it. dwellers and as soon as they had conquered Britain they began to build towns, splendid villas, public bath as in Rome itself.York, Gloucester, Lincoln and London became the chief Roman towns. London which had been a small trading settlement before the conquest now became a center for trade both by road and river. The Roman towns were military stations surrounded by walls for defense which were guarded by the Roman warriors.
- Together with a high civilization the Romans brought exploitation and slavery to the British Isles.
- Among the Celts themselves inequality began to grow. The tribal chiefs and nobility became richer than other members of the tribe. Many of them became officials acting for Rome. The noble Celts adopted the mode of life of their conquerors. They lived in rich houses and they dressed as Romans. They were proud to wear the toga which was the sign of being a Roman citizen.
- The names of many modern English towns are of Latin origin too. The Roman towns were strongly fortified and they were called Castro which means "camps». This word can be recognized in various forms in such names as Chester, Winchester ,Manchester, Don caster, Lancaster. Any English town today with a name ending in "Chester", "cester" or "caster" was once a Roman camp or city.
- 1-4 century A.D.-Britain is a Roman province
- 5 A.D.-The Romans leave Britain.
- The Romans protected their province of Britain against the barbarian tribes until they left which was at the beginning of the 5 century the Anglo-Saxons, Germanic tribes invaded Britain.
- The Anglo-Saxon conquest is regarded as the beginning of medieval history in Britain.
- The Anglo-Saxons were the ancestors of the English. As a result of the conquest they formed the majority of the population in Britain.
- After the Roman legions left Britain the Celts remained independent but not for long. From the middle of the 5 century they had to defend the country against the attacks of Germanic tribes from the Continent.
- In the 5 century, first the Jutes and then after Germanic tribes - the Saxons and Angles began to migrate to Britain. The Saxons came from the territory lying between the Rhyne and the Elbe rivers which was later on called Saxony. The Jutes and the Angles came from the Jull and Peninsula.
- In 449 the Jutes landed in Kent and this was the beginning of the Conquest. The British natives fought fiercely against the invaders and it took more than a hundred and fifty years the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes to conquer the country.
- In the course of the conquest many of the Celts were killed, some were taken prisoners and made slaves or had to pay tribute to the conquerors.
- By the end of the 6 century and the beginning of the 7 several kingdoms were formed on the territory of Britain conquered by the Germanic tribes. This territory later on became England proper. Kent was set up by the Jutes in the South-East. In the southern and southern-eastern parts of the country the Saxons formed a number of kingdoms -Sussex (the land of South Saxons), Wessex (the land of West Saxons) and Essex (the land of the East Saxons). Farther north were the settlements of the angles that had conquered the greater part of the country. In the North they founded North Umbria which has left its name the present country of north umber land. Murcia was founded in the Middle and East Anglia-in the East of England, north of the East Saxon Kingdom. These kingdoms were hostile to one another and they fought constantly for supreme power in the country.
- The new conquerors brought about changes altogether different from those that followed the conquest of the country by the Romans. The new settlers disliked towns preferring to live in small villages. In the course of the conquest they destroyed the Roman town and villas. All the beautiful buildings and baths and roads were so neglected that soon fell in ruins.
- As a result of the conquest the Anglo-Saxons made up the majority of the population in Britain and their customs, religion and languages became predominant. They called the Celts ”welsh” which mean foreigners as they could not understand the Celtic language which was quite unlike their own.
- But gradually the Celts who were in the minority merged with the conquerors adopted their customs and learned to speak their languages. Only the Celts who reminded independent in the West, Scotland and Ireland spoke their native tongue.
- At first the Anglo-Saxons spoke various dialects but gradually the dialect of the Angles of Murcia became predominant. In the course of time all the people of Britain were known to us as the English after the Angles and the new name of England was given to the whole country. The Anglo-Saxons language or English has been the principal language of the country since then although it has undergone great change.
- After the conquest of Britain the survivals of the primitive way of life were very strong among the Anglo-Saxons. But in the 7-9 centuries great changes were taking place in Anglo-Saxon society, Feudalism was slowly taking root